Facing the Wave - A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami by Gretel Ehrlich

This is about the hardest book you will read. Harder than Newton's Principia, harder than the Three Laws of Thermodynamics, harder than the Book of Revelations. In surveying the survivors of Japan's earthquake and tsunami author Gretel Ehrlich uncovers every possible permutation of Shakespearean - even Greek - tragedy. Parents lose their children in the Wave. Children lose their parents in the Wave. There's at least one instance of a man losing his spouse, his children, and his parents in the Wave.

 

One reads of the horrors and thinks, Well, at least it can't get any worse. Except for those who actually saw their loved ones washed away. Except for the old people,folks in their 70's and 80's, who are suddenly homeless, living in evacuation centers til they can go to the mixed blessing of 500 tiny square feet, temporary housing.

 

It's hard and awful but one is compelled to keep reading. Instead of throwing the book against the nearest wall one realizes, at some fundamental level, if they had the strength to survive this then we should at least be brave enough to read about it.

 

So one continues, but with a rising internal wave of our own - a wave of anger. Why did the government even allow people to live in such a dangerous zone? Why weren't the sea walls sufficient? And why did the teachers dither over official procedures and protocols instead of high tailing the children up the hill?

 

The author herself doesn't escape our annoyance. At first the Asian-style nature poetry irritates instead of pleases; it's zen simplicity seems slight against the calamity it tries to describe. Even her presence feels wrong initially, almost ghoulish. When her Japanese friend and escort cries out in an especially gruesome district about sensing a ghost it's feels heartless of Ehrlich to insist on continuing.

 

But the author's instincts are correct. The story of the tragedy isn't to be old only in cesium counts; the humanity of poetry is an appropriate balm, and honest witness is an honorable tribute.

 

 

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